Dodger President Stan Kasten. And if you're wondering who he's talking to in this picture, it sure as hell isn't Direct TV or Time Warner Cable trying to fix the Dodger TV issue. Nope, most likely, he's putting in a take out order for a pastrami sandwich from Greenblatt's Deli.
When the Guggenheim ownership group took over the team several years ago, it was with great fanfare and billions of dineros. They were the Holy Grail and they had Magic Johnson in tow to boot, even though he's just a dopey guy with a 5% stake in the franchise.
All was wonderful. And then the TV rights came up for negotiation. Suddenly, the honeymoon turned into a quickie divorce.
The Dodgers got offered billions and billions of dollars from Time Warner Cable and they immediately deposited it. Even though everybody in town knew that it was not an automatic for those games to be picked up by other TV services not named TWC. Effectively, seventy percent of the Los Angeles TV market has no access to Vin Scully and Dodger games.
Okay, that was two years ago and nothing has happened since. While I currently have TWC in the new apartment, I didn't downstairs but still managed to get Dodger games via Direct TV. There are some slightly illegal ways to do it. But most Dodger fans are still without. And the grumbling is even worse this season during Vin Scully's 67th and last year behind the microphone.
Still, the word from Kasten is that he's sorry that TWC and the other TV companies can't work out the impasse.
Uh huh. Like the little kid who lit the firecracker and then was surprised there was an explosion.
Doing some research on this numbskull, you will see that he has fucked up every baseball franchise he has touched. Oh, sure, he ran the Atlanta Braves during their hey day in the 90s. But I know he royally screwed up some broadcast rights there. And, ever since, he treats every baseball franchise since as if it's Atlanta 1992.
The guy is an idiot who has never understood the Los Angeles baseball market or Dodger fans specifically. He brags that his bald head trolls the stadium during games and he gets feedback from fans. I doubt this because, frankly, he's still alive and not tied to the back bumper of a 1967 Impala. Indeed, everything Stan Kasten has touched here has gone to ruin. And, yet, he puts the blame on everybody else for the television problem.
Here's how stupid he is. There was a business model already in place for a television coverage situation such as this. All Kasten had to do was look to New York. Both the Yankees and the Mets established their own cable networks, but yet still keep 20 or so games available for free television. I mean, that's all the Dodgers had to do and they could have made it into a marketing campaign. Free TV Friday. Every Friday, you can find the Dodger game on a local channel. And the dire situation we're now in would have been semi-avoided.
But I guess they didn't do that in Atlanta back in 1992. It's a smart idea, but asking a dope like Stan Kasten to come up with this is sort of like betting against Clayton Kershaw. A dumb move.
I had a bad feeling about this ownership group and it certainly has panned out. I'm hoping there's a nice Uber driver available to pick up Stan Kasten and company for a ride to LAX ASAP.
Dinner last night: Dodger Dog at the game.
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